A huge mistake on the writers' part, with WAY too many songs, and the beginning of MLP's devolution to G1.

HOW THE FUCK DO YOU FEEL ABOUT THIS, WRITERS? DON'T YOU CARE ABOUT YOUR FANS?

...okay. Must stay calm. Don't want this review to turn into a huge cycle of yelling.

I watched the episode, and at first I kind of liked it. Opening up an episode with a song seems kind of cool. But then, another song happened... and another... and another... Basically, I had to sit through seven unneccesary songs, all crammed into 22 minutes.I could understand this if it were, say, a 44-minute long episode or a two-parter. But this was a bit much, don't ya think?

Okay, so it was a bit entertaining to see how the other ponies would attempt to do the talents predicted by their switched cutie marks. That would've probably been the best part of the entire episode. Now, for the ending.

Get ready.

Remember that thing I saw a while back that said, "This is only a disguise and it will be temporary"?

It was fake. Photoshopped.

You know what happened?Twilight became an alicorn after perfecting Star Swirl the Bearded's spell. She was sent into space, and Celestia sang for her. And then POOF! she was back on the surface, only with wings. And then the rest of the show was a princess coronation or something like that (with songs, of course.)

And now, everybody's happy for her, completely forgetting the fact that whenever she talks to them, they'll now have to avert their eyes, leading to multiple "elephant in the room" or in this case "alicorn in the room" situations. Or, alternatively, she could live up in Canterlot and COMPLETELY DITCH her friends, and then the show would end.

...Yknow what? I'll just rate the show's various aspects right here.

The music: WAY too many songs, and I never liked the songs in MLP myself. I gotta listen to A TON of Gorillaz to wash that out of my head. I give it two stars.The Pinkie Pie randomness scenes: Fewer than other episodes, but they were really funny. Hell, proof of that is that I just created an entire section for her scenes! And I don't even LIKE Pinkie Pie! I give it five stars.The plot: Obviously reinforcing the fact that they're still trying to maintain the "little girls" audience even though we've proved to them who their real audience is, with turning the main character into a princess. I give it one star.

One more thing I have to say:The show has changed. And not in a good way, either. The entire first season and part of the second season had Lauren Faust on the staff. She wanted to remake the show, only to get rid of the "girly" stereotype.Well, guess what?Ever since she left the show, the episodes have been getting girlier and girlier. All of her hard work going to waste. Infact, yknow what? Of my personal top 10 MLP episodes, not one of them, NOT ONE, was from Season Three.Now it can only get worse.

Hasbro, I'll give you one more chance, ONE MORE CHANCE, to redeem yourself. If you fail me, I'm outta here.

Eh, I still refuse to rewatch it, but my opinion about Twilight becoming an alicorn has softened. I think if this episode had been a two-parter and wasn't as rushed, it would have probably been more bearable to me. Then again, I'm under the impression that the entirety of s3 was rushed, as it had half the episodes of previous seasons (seasons 1 and 2 had 26 episodes each, and s3 had only 13)

You should. He actually has some brilliant insights as to why the episode, rushed as it is, mostly works.

The episode itself probably would have been liked a lot more in the immediate time frame, but Twilight becoming an Alicorn probably wouldn't have, simply because no matter what, it was still a major change to a character that we had grown to love.

Like what :devthe-naval-bron: said, if the show is gonna devolve to G1, then I'm defiantly watching it! I personally am looking forward to see season 4 and that it's gonna be more like G1 since that series is based on ponies going out on adventures, fighting against villains, and going on a quests to a different lands and meet other creatures like Furbobs or other pony breeds like Sea Ponies or Flutter ponies. Nothing wrong with the mane six going on an adventures since there's a whole world out there and not just Equastria. FIM can't do the same thing over and over or else it'll get stale. It gets boring to see them learn the same lessons over and over, learn about them and so forth.

Have you ever watch G1 MLP? It's actually quite good, despite it's flaws. Sure, the animation isn't that great(except for the TV special, My Little Pony Rescue at Midnight Castle, that one is the darkest MLP cartoon) or that the characters are bland and have little or no personality but the best part? It teaches us on using our imaginations instead of constantly relying on others like asking Faust about the alicorn history and so forth. We can make up our own pony personalities, that's what Faust did when she was a kid by watching the G1 series. FIM is based on her childhood imagination or should I say, her fanfiction cartoon.

I have seen one episode of G1. The main problem I had with it was the human character--she seemed kinda sueish. Also, was kinda girly at parts (way more than it currently is) and the characters seemed incredibly unrealistic. That's what I'm referring to when I say it's devolving into G1--human characters, unrealism, and incredibly girly.

How did this come up anyway? I posted this about the Alicorn Twilight episode and here you are talking about G1. I'm just afraid of the direction the show's been taking ever since Lauren left.

Well, if its going to devolve to G1, then, I would watch the show once again. Besides, we haven't really see what Twilight Sparkle can do and what flaws she will face being an alicorn. Maybe that would be addressed when Season 4 hits. After all, lets not jump into conclusions.

Besides, G1 isn't that girly really. G1 was probably the most darkest of all generations (sure G4 had its dark parts but not as much as G1 did). Besides, I like adventure, not slice of life (they should probably do less slice of life and more adventure).

That's my opinion. I wonder what they're going to show at Comic Con. (Keeps his fingers crossed).

It wouldn't realistically make sense for her to be an alicorn. Realistically what would happen is that there would be several awkward moments between her and her friends (them kissing her ass all the time, getting jealous, etc.) and then they eventually grow apart. Besides consider that now that she's an alicorn, Twilight is now immortal. This means that her friends will now grow old and die, and meanwhile Twilight will become emo or something, or... i might be taking this too far. In any case, I don't like it and I didn't like the episode. (Note that alicorn Twilight wasn't the only reason).

It was a musical episode, and the songs were just too corny to enjoy. I did notice that the animation was much more higher-end that any of the previous episodes, so that was really cool and kept me watching. The episode was... Disappointing. Too corny. Too girly. I liked seeing Vinyl Scratch, a pony that wasn't originally from the show, make a major appearance. I also liked seeing Pinkie's hair down again. I think it looks better than her cotton candy or "candy floss" style mane.

God... Just song after song after song... I've always liked the songs in My Little Pony Friendship is Magic. I know most of them by heart. Babs Seed, Winter Wrap Up, "This Day, Aria", the Flim Flam Brothers song, even Raise This Barn because of all the great remixes. But these songs... Didn't live up to expectations...

What I enjoyed much more than the show was one of the promos for the show that came on, a parody of "The Most Interesting Man In The World" commercials. [link]

The worst part is that the title of the show is a reference to the Beatle's "Magical Mystery Tour" album and movie. You can't just make a reference to that and not make the episode good.

I can accept that Twilight is an Alicorn, and that this was just a bad episode. I'll tune in next weekend for the second part where something interesting and riveting better damn well happen, and I'll stay tuned for season four and see if there's any improvement from season three. I miss Lauren Faust... Things are going downhill...

Oh, and by the way, Gorillaz is one of my favorite bands. I prefer their first album, "Gorillaz" and their second album, "Demon Days" to their newer album, "Plastic Beach". Melancholy Hill is a great song, but the rest of them are... Eh. Just meh. Not really done in the same style or spirit as their first two albums.

The reappearance of Derpy and Vinyl, and the Pinkie randomness scenes, were the only things that made the episode watchable, in my opinion. Other than that, too many songs, and they weren't even good. The writing is devolving into something G1-esque.

I recognize the Beatles reference-- I've seen that movie before. But I disagree with you. The worst part is the friendship lesson-- or lack thereof. From what I could tell, the friendship lesson seemed to be "you choose your own destiny," but that's kind of null in a universe where your destiny is picked by a mark you receive on your ass, and plus the fact that Twilight may not have wanted to become a princess in the first place, but Celestia chose it for her.

But nothing will change in my fanfictions. As I said before, "I reject your canon and substitute my own". So therefore, in my canon, Cadance doesn't exist, Discord's still dead and Twilight's still a unicorn. Basically, my canon is what WAS canon in seasons 1-2. That's my canon, and it will remain that way unless I somehow get used to this.

I'm a big fan of Gorillaz altogether. Dan may seem like a bigger Gorillaz fan, but I introduced him to it.

I didn't even notice any major appearance of Derpy. I've seen her so many times as a kind of easter egg character that I must have just looked past her. No, I don't think it's nearly as bad as Generation one. Not yet, anyway. Though, now that I think about it, there were a couple of dark moments in Generation one... Bah. Still doesn't make up for all those crappy songs. I will never forget being forced to watch all however many seasons of that god forsaken show there are... My little sister used to adore that show, and I had to supervise... I would know if it's as bad as Generation one.

You know what? Yeah. There wasn't any point to the episode. This is exposition for something. It was a story, sure, but it didn't have a theme or meaning that made sense. This introduces a few new ideas... Or I could just be over-thinking things like I have a tendency to do and it was just a very poorly written episode. Although, I'd have to disagree with you about the cutie mark thing. I really have no idea why a damn mark on their butts would have such a profound effect if they were switched, but if you remember back to various Cutie Mark Crusader episodes, you earn your cutie mark when you discover what you want to be, or what your passion is. Your cutie mark represents who you are and what your special talent is. Your own choices shape the person you become, and therefore what kind of person or pony you are. The reason no magic spell can induce a cutie mark is because a cutie mark isn't predetermined. You choose your destiny, and in a way, your cutie mark. That does make this episode a bit worse, though. A cutie mark shouldn't tell you who you have to be. It should be a representation of who you choose to be.

I think the entire episode was pretty much sung through, like a 30 minute Les Miserables. In fact, why don't they just do that?

I gotta agree I did not like Season 3 as much as I did Season 1 and 2...but the finale is just beyond disappointing. It was cool to see what might happen if the ponies cutie marks and destinies were switched, but I am just beyond upset that the rumor that we thought to be fake isn't so fake after all. The episode appears to be screaming "series finale" Yet I hear there will be a Season 4. Will there be only 13 episodes and then the show gets canned?

What it is telling me is that it is no longer giving the bronies what they want, and only what the little girls want....so it will no longer appeal to us. No wonder we're losing bronies left and right!

I just hope Twilight returns to normal in Season 4. If the mane six appear at all.

I don't see why they have to keep tryig to maintain their audience of "little girls". I mean, we've already proven to them who their REAL fans are, so why not start making episodes for us instead of them.

I just watched it, out of curiosity. Meh, too many songs. As for the whole Twilight Alicorn thing, I can honestly say that I saw this coming. There's nothing little girls like more in a TV show than a main character who's an overpowered princess. And this is a little girls' show, after all.

You completely misunderstood me. What I'm saying is that, even though the show attracted a much larger fanbase of adults and teenagers, the original target audience is little girls, and Hasbro is going to try to maintain that audience, because that's who the show was originally created for.

If something wants to survive, it adapts. The show was NOT, as a matter of fact, designed for little girls. The show was developed/planned/etc for parents to be able to watch it with their children, and not poke their eyes out as if it were Dora the Explorer.Obviously it went a bit further than being simply acceptable by parents, it got its own fanbase.

Your base statement of "the original target audience is little girls" is incorrect.

Well, yeah. I knew about THAT, but I was obviously referring to Hasbro, the big money behind the project. It doesn't matter what Lauren Faust thinks about the project. To the Hasbro staff it's still a show for little girls, created for no reason other than to sell a line of toys. So yeah, Kirby's hopes for the show to "finally start aiming toward the brony audience rather than the audience of little girls"? Yeah, not gonna happen, at least not while Hasbro owns the show and is making money off of it.